Method and apparatus for scheduling multimedia streams over a wireless broadcast channel

ABSTRACT

A method of broadcasting data is disclosed. A plurality of broadcast data streams are received and divided into a plurality of frames. Each frame includes data from only one of the broadcast data streams. The frames can then be broadcast wirelessly.

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.61/021,266, filed on Jan. 15, 2008, entitled “Method and Apparatus forScheduling Multimedia Streams over an OFDMA Broadcast Channel,” whichapplication is hereby incorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates generally to a communication system andmethod, and, in particular embodiments, to a method and apparatus forscheduling multimedia streams over a wireless broadcast channel.

BACKGROUND

Broadcast services can be supported with various technologies includingthe traditional television broadcasts as well as newer technologies suchas DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting—Handheld) and MediaFLO. Broadcastservices can be also supported over a wireless network, such as awireless network based on Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access(OFDMA) radio transmission technology.

In providing Broadcast services in a known digital broadcast network,time slicing is usually used in which periodic bursts are allocated toeach stream but the channel switching delay is high and the flexibilityin multiplexing streams with different rates is limited. In providingBroadcast services in a known cellular based network, multiple streamsare usually multiplexed in each transmitted burst. But this results inhigh terminal power usage and large signaling overhead.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In one aspect, the present invention provides broadcast services over awireless network, such as over a 3-4 G wireless network, withadvantageous features such as low terminal power usage, low channelswitching delay and high broadcast channel utilization.

In a first embodiment, a method of broadcasting data is disclosed. Aplurality of broadcast data streams are received and divided into aplurality of frames. Each frame includes data from only one of thebroadcast data streams. The frames can then be broadcast wirelessly.Each frame can also include data related to the next frame of the samestream, e.g., so that a mobile receiver does not need to process framesthat do not include broadcast data of interest.

In another embodiment, a frame of data is received from a wirelesscommunication link. Broadcast data and next frame information can beretrieved from the frame. The next frame information providesinformation related to a next frame of data that includes data relatedto the retrieved broadcast data. In a particular embodiment, framesbetween the frame of data and the next frame can be ignored, forexample, by not processing these frames or placing the receiver in a lowpower mode.

In another embodiment, a method for transmitting multimedia streams overa wireless access system includes emulating queuing of a generatedstream, the queuing being performed at a base station. A data rate ofthe generated stream is adjusted based upon the emulating and the datarate adjusted generated stream is provided to the base station forwireless broadcast. As an example, the emulation can be performed at acontent provider.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a more complete understanding of the present invention, and theadvantages thereof, reference is now made to the following descriptionstaken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an emulation process;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the assignment of data streams intoframes; and

FIGS. 3a and 3b provide simulation data.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENTS

The making and using of the presently preferred embodiments arediscussed in detail below. It should be appreciated, however, that thepresent invention provides many applicable inventive concepts that canbe embodied in a wide variety of specific contexts. The specificembodiments discussed are merely illustrative of specific ways to makeand use the invention, and do not limit the scope of the invention.

In various aspects, the invention relates to a method and apparatus forscheduling multimedia broadcast services over a wireless communicationnetwork based on a wireless access system such as, but not limited to,an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) radiotransmission technology.

In order to minimize terminal power usage, digital broadcast networks(such as DVB-H and MediaFLO) broadcast each stream in large periodicbursts. Each terminal need only be awake for the bursts of its desiredchannel. In OFDMA networks, such as WiMAX, the channel burst size isfixed. In order to achieve low power usage, it is optimal to serve asingle channel in each broadcast burst. In addition, each frame mayinclude an indication of the index of the next frame for the channel sothat the terminal will know when next to awake (because the servicetimes need not be periodic). In preferred embodiments, a novelscheduling algorithm for achieving both of these goals is described. Itis shown how traffic can be shaped by the content provider to conform tothe specific constraints of the wireless network. Advantageous featuresinclude low terminal power usage, low channel switching delay and highbroadcast channel utilization.

In OFDMA, frequency (subcarrier) and time (symbol) resources areallocated to a subset of users in each frame. This allocation willtypically depend on the nature of the traffic and, in the case of VoIPand data services, such as the channel conditions being experienced bythe users. In the case of broadcast services, sufficient power andbandwidth resources are preferably allocated to achieve the desiredcoverage for the given cell site separation. The allocated resources arekept constant so as not to affect resources needed for other services.Since these resources are fixed and the modulation and coding scheme isalso fixed then the number of bits that can be transmitted within thezone is also fixed.

Multiple streams from possibly multiple content providers may bemultiplexed over this fixed rate broadcast channel. If data frommultiple streams are included within a single frame then signalinginformation may be included in the downlink MAP (Mobile ApplicationPart) message to indicate the location of the data for each of theincluded streams. Each terminal can then decode the portions of theframe that include data for its desired channel.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the approach is taken totransmit data for only one stream in each zone. This results in lowersignaling overhead but more importantly it allows the terminal to decodefewer frames, which means that the terminal can remain in sleep mode fora greater percentage of frames. When battery usage is an importantcriterion for this type of service, the later option is preferably used.It is noted that if only broadcast services are supported then, ifdesired, multiple sub-zones can be created and the features disclosedwith respect to preferred embodiments can be applied independently toeach sub-zone.

In one aspect of the current invention, an advantageous traffic shapingmechanism is provided suitable for offering broadcast services over anOFDMA wireless network.

Since the throughput available for the service is fixed because the zonesize is fixed then the average rate of the total offered load should notexceed this capacity. To ensure this, traffic shaping may be performedby each content provider so that the summed traffic at the base stationis well behaved. A simple approach for performing this traffic shapingwill be described below. The traffic shaping will be performed toconform the traffic to the characteristics of the radio bearer asopposed to the characteristics of the channel used within the wirednetwork to transport the data. An alternative embodiment is to use avariable bit rate encoder. However, if such streams exhibit long rangedependency, then buffering and stream multiplexing would be insufficientto avoid congestion.

Rate controlled encoding can be used by each content provider to ensurethat the generated traffic conforms to the Service Level Agreement (SLA)between the content provider and the wireless operator. The quality ofsuch streams varies with the content being displayed.

Note that the wireless operator may reserve a specified amount ofresources for each content provider. The content provider may then shapeits traffic to utilize these resources as efficiently as possible. Ifthe traffic from a content provider requires excessive resources thenthe wireless operator may take actions to reduce the resources required(e.g., by dropping packets from the ill-behaved stream). Preferably, thecontent provider is responsible for determining what actions should betaken.

Note that a content provider may multiplex multiple channels into thestream that is fed to the wireless operator. If this is the case theneach terminal that desires one of these channels may decode the entirestream and extract the channel of interest. Therefore some power iswasted in decoding those channels that are not needed. The contentprovider can instead use a single stream for each channel and reserveresources for each stream from the wireless operator. This reduces theterminal power consumption but multiplexing gains that were possible incombining the channels into a single stream are lost.

In one preferred embodiment, assuming for each stream i, a contentprovider leases a constant bit rate pipe of size r_(i). In addition,they both agree upon the maximum queuing delay, d_(i), of packets in thebase station queue (actually the queuing will be performed at thecontroller which then broadcasts packets to all base stations). Packetsthat exceed this delay will be dropped. Note that this places aconstraint on the burstiness of the traffic offered by the contentprovider. Large bursts result in larger queuing delays (because themaximum service rate is fixed), which results in more packet losses.Hence the wireless operator guarantees the rate and maximum delay butdoes not guarantee any specific packet loss rates. A content providercan predict what actions will be taken by the wireless operator and caninstead take more appropriate actions for its service. It is able to dothis by emulating the queuing that is performed at the base station. Thedetail is described as the following.

The content provider emulates passage of the generated stream through abuffer of size r_(i)d_(i). This virtual queue is serviced at a constantrate r_(i) with packet durations equal to the frame durations of thebroadcast channel. The overflow rate of this buffer is therefore thepacket loss rate that the stream will experience at the base station.The content provider can monitor this overflow and if it is undesirablecan take appropriate actions. Such actions can include adjusting theencoding rate or dropping low priority packets. For example, for videoencoded source, this encoder can drop one or more of the encodedB-frames or P-frames and always transmit the I-frames if there is a needto drop packets to meet the SLA. If multiple channels are multiplexedthen one of them may be sacrificed in order to maintain the performanceof the others. If multiple layering is performed, packets from theenhancement layer can be dropped to ensure that the base layer getsthrough. The point is that the specific actions taken are performed bythe content provider rather than the wireless operator. Note that oneaction might be to request additional resources from the wirelessoperator and such a request will be granted if resources are available.

FIG. 1 provides a block diagram to show the functionality provided by acontent provider. In this example, the content provider wishes tobroadcast data from N video sources 102 a and 102 b (collectively 102).The video signals from the sources 102 are provided to encoders 104 aand 104 b (collectively 104), where the data can be put into a formatfor transmission. The encoded signals are then provided to multiplexer106, where a single data stream is provided for transmission to awireless service provider. In the illustrated example, the multiplexedsignal is transmitted over a wired network, denoted by reference numeral108.

In an embodiment of the invention, a traffic shaping function isperformed by the content provider. Traditionally this function isperformed with token buckets, however, it is believed that byreplicating the queuing performed by the wireless operator more suitablethrottling actions can be chosen.

Preferably, the streams are scheduled by the base station, and thescheduler uses specific properties of the inventive traffic shapingmechanism to ensure that the wireless operator provides each stream withthe desired SLA guarantees.

The wireless operator is responsible for providing sufficient throughputfor a content provider's multiplexed stream such that the overflow rateis equivalent to that experienced if the content provider's offered loadwas to be queued with a buffer of size r_(i)d_(i) and served at aconstant bit rate r_(i). The approach of how the stream can be scheduledso as to achieve this rate is described as the following. To simplifythe description, overheads due to signaling and Forward Error Correctionare ignored. But these can easily be taken into account.

Assuming N streams are to be supported, if the wireless operatorprovides a constant bit rate pipe of rate r_(i) then it can use a queueof size r_(i)d_(i) to achieve a maximum delay of d_(i). This queue isthe same as the virtual queue maintained by the content provider. Denotethe frame duration by τ then a (near) constant bit stream rate can beachieved by including r_(i)τ bits for stream i in each frame. As pointedout earlier, this approach has drawbacks because the terminal has to beawake for each frame. However it provides the constant bit rate neededfor the stream.

From a power utilization point of view, a better approach is to includea single stream in each frame and since the terminal only has to beawake for the frames containing its channel, then power utilization isminimized. However this bursty allocation of radio resources means thatthe delays experienced at the base station are no longer equivalent tothose seen by the content provider in its virtual queue. In order toreduce the maximum delay to more closely correspond to that seen by thecontent provider, the service rate of the stream may be increased (i.e.,a lower channel utilization may be used). Denote the utilization usedfor stream i by ρ_(i). This utilization can be determined in advancegiven r_(i), d_(i) and the burstiness of the stream.

Given the stream parameters, the zone size needed to support the servicecan be determined. Let R denote the rate of the radio bearer and τ theframe duration, thus yielding

$\begin{matrix}{R = {\sum\limits_{i = 1}^{N}\;\frac{r_{i}}{\rho_{i}}}} & (1)\end{matrix}$and hence the above equation can be used to determine the zone size Rτ.

If all streams have the same rates then a simple round robin allocationof frames to streams will be sufficient. Each stream will be served Rτbits every Nth frame and hence achieve an average rate of R/N bps.However, in general, the rates vary among streams. If this is the casethen a simple round robin scheduler may not work since some streams arebeing serviced more often than others. In addition, the time periodbetween service to a stream may no longer be constant. This means thatthe terminal would not know when next to wake up for its desiredchannel. Therefore in each frame the location of the subsequent frame inthe stream may be provided to the terminal. This means that thisinformation will be known in advance, hence the sequence of frames for astream will be deterministic.

A preferable scheme for deterministically computing the sequence offrame allocations for each stream can be determined independently byeach base station or by a centralized controller. The preferable schemecan be used to provide the indication for the next frame in thesequence.

Consider a queuing system with N input sources. All sources have thesame packet size Rτ. Source i generates packets at a constant rate withperiod x_(i)=(Rτ ρ_(i))/r_(i). All generated packets enter a singlequeue which is served at a constant rate of one packet every τ seconds.Hence the offered load to this queue is deterministic (the sum ofperiodic arrivals) and the packets are also served deterministically.Furthermore note that the total incoming packet rate is:

$\begin{matrix}{\frac{1}{R\;\tau}{\sum\limits_{i = 1}^{N\;}\;\frac{r_{i}}{\rho_{i}}}} & (2)\end{matrix}$which, using an R of 1, is simply 1/τ which is the service rate. Sincethe system is completely deterministic, the sequence of frameallocations for each stream can therefore be determined.

As an example, FIG. 2 illustrates a deterministic sequence obtained frommultiplexing of the incoming streams. Also shown in FIG. 2 are theincoming queues of the real traffic streams. This traffic is queued andserved in bursts. Each burst contains Rτ bits and is generated everyx_(i) seconds.

The frame sequence for a particular stream can be computed as follows.Assume that at time zero all streams generate a packet and from thenonwards stream i generates a packet every x_(i) seconds. Let S_(i)(k)denote the index of the frame that is used to transmit packet number k+1from stream i. This packet arrives at time kx_(i).

First note that, in steady state, the queue is generally non-zero.Suppose that this was not the case and that the probability of the queuebecoming empty is non-zero. Since the channel utilization is then one,whenever the queue becomes empty the total number of served packetsbecomes one less than the total number of incoming packets. Thereforethe expected value of the queue size increases by one each time thisevent occurs. This means that the expected value of the queue will growto infinity. However, as the expected value of the queue increases toinfinity, the probability that the queue becomes empty goes to zero.This contradicts our initial assumption that the queue becomes zero withnon-zero probability in steady state.

Hence since the queue remains non-zero, then the total number ofdepartures from the start of service to the time of arrival of packetk+1 for stream i is [kx_(i)]. During this period the total number ofarrivals from stream i is k. Assuming that lower numbered streams havehigher priority in the queue than higher numbered streams, the totalnumber of arrivals from a stream j with higher priority is given by[(kx_(i))/x_(j)]+1 while the total number of arrivals from a stream lwith lower priority is given by [(kx_(i))/x_(i)]. Note that thesearrivals include those packets that were generated at time zero. Bysubtracting the number of departures from the total number of arrivals,the number queued ahead of the packet from stream i when it arrives canbe obtained. This packet arrives in frame index [kx_(i)] and will beserved in the first frame right after all the packets ahead of it areserved. Hence this frame index is given by:

$\begin{matrix}{{\begin{matrix}{{S_{i}(k)} = {{1\left\lfloor {kx}_{i} \right\rfloor} + k + {\sum\limits_{j = 1}^{i - 1}\;\left( {1 + \left\lfloor \frac{{kx}_{i}}{x_{j}} \right\rfloor} \right)} +}} \\{= {k + i + {\sum\limits_{j = 1}^{i - 1}\;\left\lfloor \frac{{kx}_{i}}{x_{j}} \right\rfloor} + {\sum\limits_{j = {i + 1}}^{N}{\left\lceil \frac{{kx}_{i}}{x_{j}} \right\rceil.}}}}\end{matrix}{\sum\limits_{j = {i + 1}}^{N}\;\left\lceil \frac{{kx}_{i}}{x_{j}} \right\rceil}} - \left\lfloor {kx}_{i} \right\rfloor} & (3)\end{matrix}$

For example if all N streams have the same period then S_(i)(k)=Nk+iwhich is round robin service. Consider a more complicated scenario inwhich N=10. Streams 1 to 3 generate packets with period 7.5, streams 4to 7 generate packets with period 10 and streams 8 to 10 generatepackets with period 15. It is assumed that at time zero each streamgenerates a packet. Furthermore it is assumed that a stream has higherpriority over all higher numbered streams. Using Equation (3), thestream allocations for the first sixty frames are obtained as thefollowing:1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 8 9 10 4 5 6 7 1 2 31 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 8 9 10 4 5 6 7 1 2 3Note that the first thirty allocations are repeated and in fact thiscycle repeats forever. Next it is shown that, in steady state, this istrue in general.

Since the packets generated for stream i is periodic with period x_(i)then when all streams are multiplexed the resulting stream will beperiodic with period given by the Lowest Common Multiple (LCM) of theset of periods x_(i). Since a First-In-First-Out (FIFO) servicingdiscipline is used then the output sequence is also deterministic and sowill also repeat with the same period. Hence in steady state the framesequence produced by the scheduler is cyclic with period given by theLCM of the stream periods. In the example above, LCM(7.5, 10, 15)=30.

Recall that x_(i)=Rτρ/r_(i). Supposing the same utilization for eachstream, the stream rates are generally multiples of some basic rate(e.g., 64 kbps). Therefore the sequence period will typically be somesmall multiple of the largest stream period.

It is noted that this notion of a queuing system between the queues ofthe incoming streams and the broadcast channel are solely used toillustrate how the frame sequence is determined. Once the frame sequenceis determined then the scheduler simply serves each stream in the orderdetermined by this sequence.

A further aspect of the current invention relates to the channelswitching time. Once a terminal decides to switch to another channel,the average time taken to do this depends on the average time betweenframes allocated for the stream. For stream i this average is given byx_(i)/2=Rτρ_(i)/(2r_(i)). Hence the switching times for all streams growwith Rτ which is the zone size. If the switching time is unacceptable,the zone can be subdivided into two or more sub-zones. Each stream isthen allocated to one of these sub-zones. For example, if two sub-zonesare used then the switching times will be reduced by a factor of two.Also note that the switching time increases inversely with the streamrate. However, since high rate services are associated with higher QoSthen having lower switching times for such streams is desirable. Notethat other factors also affect the switching times (such as playbackbuffer size, signaling latency, etc.).

Typically multiple layers are created for each stream. For example, abase layer can be generated for all users, while an enhancement layercan be simultaneously transmitted but targeted for those users with goodradio conditions. In other words the modulation and coding for the baselayer is chosen so that it can be received by all terminals whileanother is used for those terminals closer to the antenna. If eachstream burst contains only base layer information or only enhancementlayer information then the terminals that cannot correctly decode theenhancement layer bursts (determined from previous attempts) orterminals with low battery levels can ignore those bursts containing theenhancement layer.

A similar approach can be used for the systematic bits of the ForwardError Correction (FEC) algorithm. Suppose that these are placed in aseparate burst following the bursts containing the data. Those terminalsthat correctly decode the data can ignore the subsequent FEC burst sinceit is not needed. This results in power saving for those terminals.

Note that if the total offered load is decreased and the same zone sizeis maintained, the resources can still be fully utilized. In this casethere will be some bursts with no allocated stream. Since the schedulerknows the identity of these bursts it can instead allocate them to othertypes of traffic (e.g., unicast services). In the extreme case where theentire frame is used as a zone the resulting system will time multiplexbroadcast and unicast services.

Note that the frame sequence for each stream depends on the number ofother streams sharing the channel as well as the rates of those streams.However, once the frame sequence is determined, the performance of theservice provided to the stream can be determined in isolation becauseits frame allocations are guaranteed. Hence in this section theperformance of a single stream is evaluated. It is investigated howbursty scheduling affects delay performance. It is also investigated howdelay performance can be improved through adjusting the channelutilization.

A trace file is prepared. More specifically, a trace file withrate-controlled encoding (using H.263) targeted at 256 kbps is used.This has a frame rate of 25 fps. However, multiple video frames may becombined into a single packet and so packets may not be generated every40 ms but sometimes at some multiple of 40 ms. The peak to mean ratio ofpacket sizes is 9.24 resulting in bursty arrivals.

For the radio broadcast channel, it is assumed a frame size of 5 ms.Hence there may be 8 or more frame broadcasts between video packetarrivals from the source. First evaluated is the performance of the casein which each radio frame is used to transmit information for thestream. This would provide the constant bit rate service assumed in thevirtual queuing system at the source.

Therefore each frame contains at most 256×5 bits for the stream. Notethat since the service rate is constant, the delay of newly arrivingpackets can be computed as the product of the queue size and the servicerate. Over the first 7.5 minutes of the film the maximum and mean valuesof this delay is determined and these results presented in Table I.

TABLE 1 DELAY STATISTICS Ave Max Utilization Delay (ms) Delay (ms) CBRService 100% 223 480 Bursty Service 100% 236 520 Bursty Service 99.8% 195 493

Next, the delay performance of the proposed scheduling scheme isinvestigated. It is assumed that the total traffic is such that anaverage of one out of every eight radio frames is allocated to thisparticular stream. Depending on the nature of the other streams, theframe allocations may not be periodic. In the worst case the frameallocations will alternate between a frame separation of 1 and a frameseparation of 15. Therefore, it is assumed this worst case allocation.It is determined the maximum and mean delays for this case and find thatboth metrics are higher than that obtained for the constant bit rateservice (see Table I).

Next it is investigated how the delay metric can be improved by reducingthe channel utilization from 100%. In the previous case a total of256×5×8 bits were served in each burst. In this case, it is assumed thatd256×5×40/0.998e bits be served in each burst. For this case, it revealsthat the maximum and mean delays are better than those observed for theconstant bit rate case. Therefore by using slightly more resources, asimilar delay performance can be achieved as that observed by thecontent provider while using the proposed algorithm to efficientlyschedule streams.

In FIG. 3a , the queuing delay is plotted as a function of frame indexfor the first 128 radio frames of the second minute of the film. In FIG.3b the same information is plotted, but for the case of burstyscheduling and a utilization of 99.8%. Note the bursty nature of theservice for the scheduled case. However also note that, because of thelower channel utilization, incoming bursts are processed faster thusreducing the size of queuing peaks. Naturally a burstier video sourcewill require even lower channel utilization but the loss in capacitywill typically be negligible.

Preferred embodiments describe features of supporting broadcast servicesover a OFDMA broadcast channel such as that provided in the WiMAXstandard. A simple traffic shaping framework is presented that uses theproperties of this framework to develop a scheduler for allocatingresources to streams over a radio channel. This scheduling algorithmprovides deterministic allocations making it possible to indicate toeach terminal when next it should awake for a frame containing data forits desired channel. Although the resulting scheduling algorithmprovides bursty servicing, it is shown that by making a small increasein the number of resources allocated to the service one can achievesimilar delay performance as that agreed upon with the content provider.Simulation results were then used to illustrate the approach. Note that,the approach described in preferred embodiments can be used to addressissues such as FEC and layering.

The scheduler described above for allocating resources to streams overthe radio channel provides deterministic allocations, thus making itpossible to indicate to each terminal when it should awake for a framecontaining data for its desired channel. Also, by making a smallincrease in the number of resources allocated to the service, similardelay performance as that agreed upon with the content provider can beachieved.

Method embodiments of the invention will now be described. The detailsprovided here supplement (and are supplemented by) the discussion above.

In a first embodiment, data is broadcast, e.g., from a base station. Thebase station receives a number of broadcast data streams, which may be,for example, video, audio, text or any other data. As an example, thebroadcast data streams might be received from a content provider to awireless service provider.

The broadcast data streams are assigned into a number of frames. In afirst embodiment, each frame includes data from no more than one of thebroadcast data streams. The frames can then be broadcast wirelessly,e.g., to a number of mobile users.

In one embodiment, each frame includes information related to a nextframe that will include data from that same broadcast data stream. Thisway each mobile user is only required to process the frames that includedata of interest and can, for example, remain in a low power mode atother times. The location of broadcast data within each frame can bepre-specified and known by the mobile stations. An identity of thebroadcast data stream within a particular frame can be indicated inlog(N) bits, where N is the number of broadcast data streams assignedinto the plurality of frames.

In another embodiment, each frame includes multiple zones so that eachzone can use the approaches described herein. For example, two or morezones are created within each frame and the proposed method is appliedto each zone. This reduces the switching time (e.g., the time taken toswitch from one stream to another) but increases power consumption.

In another example, the sequence can be determined by the base stationand broadcast to all mobile users. For example, the frame sequence foreach stream is computed by the base station and broadcast to all mobilestations. Each mobile station that desires a specific stream cansuccessively decode each frame until it finds one containing the streamof interest. The mobile station can then use the frame sequence for thestream that was broadcast by the base station to determine when next thestream will be served. In this case a next frame indicator is no longerneeded for each frame.

In another embodiment, the base station can sense a reduction in ratefor a particular broadcast data stream and transmitting a differentframe in a slot allocated for the particular broadcast data stream inthe frame sequence. In other words, if there is a reduction in rate fora stream then a base station can “skip” the next frame in the sequenceand instead allocate it to other types of traffic (e.g., unicasttraffic).

In an embodiment, the sequence of frame allocations for the broadcaststreams can be deterministically computed. Information related to thedeterministically computed sequence of frame allocations can be includedin each frame. The computation can be performed at a base station or ata centralized controller that is remote from but communicatively coupledto a base station of a wireless communication system.

A stream can be split into two (or more) substreams with each substreamcarrying a different layer of information. For example, high definitiondevices can decode all substreams while lower definition devices candecode a subset of the substreams (reduced power consumption andprocessing capacity). Some substreams may use aggressive modulation andcoding and hence can only be decoded by mobile stations close to thebasestation while the other substreams use a more conservative MCS(Modulation and Coding Scheme) and is decodable by all mobile stations.Again, all of this is possible because the frame sequence for eachsubstream can be determined in advance with the proposed approach.

From the perspective of a mobile user, for a particular embodiment, aframe of data is received from a wireless communication link. Broadcastdata and next frame information are retrieved from the frame. The nextframe information provides information related to a next frame of datathat includes data related to the retrieved broadcast data. The nextframe of data can then be received and processed without processingintervening frames of data. In one example, each frame includes datarelated to no more than one information stream. In another example, eachframe includes two or more zones, each of which includes data related tono more than one information stream.

In another embodiment, a frame sequence is received from a wirelesscommunication link. A number of frames are then received from thewireless communication link and successively decoded until a frame thatcontains a stream of interest is found. The frame sequence can then beused to determine when a next frame that contains the stream of interestwill be served. For example, frames received between the frame thatcontains the stream of interest and the next stream of interest are notdecoded.

In one particular example, the method is performed in a mobile handset.Receiving circuitry of the mobile handset is placed in a low power modeduring a time between when the frame that contains the stream ofinterest is received and when the next stream of interest is received.

Although the present invention and its advantages have been described indetail, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions andalterations can be made herein without departing from the spirit andscope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of broadcasting data, the methodcomprising: receiving a plurality of broadcast data streams, a firstbroadcast data stream including data processed with a first modulationand coding scheme, and a second broadcast data stream including the samedata processed with a second modulation and coding scheme; assigning thebroadcast data streams into a plurality of frames, each frame beingassigned to only one broadcast data stream, each frame carrying datafrom only its assigned broadcast data stream, index information carriedby each frame of other frames assigned to the broadcast data streamsbeing limited, per broadcast stream, to a sole instance of indexinformation of only a single next frame carrying data from that samebroadcast data stream, and the index information varying fromframe-to-frame; and causing the frames to be broadcast wirelessly. 2.The method of claim 1, wherein causing the frames to be broadcastwirelessly comprises causing the frames to be broadcast to a pluralityof mobile stations, wherein a location of broadcast data within eachframe is pre-specified and known by the mobile stations.
 3. The methodof claim 1, wherein an identity of each broadcast data stream within aparticular frame is indicated in log(N) bits, where N is a number ofbroadcast data streams assigned into the plurality of frames.
 4. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: computing a frame sequence foreach broadcast data stream; and broadcasting the frame sequence to aplurality of mobile stations.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein eachmobile station that desires a specific broadcast data stream cansuccessively decode each frame until the mobile station finds a framecontaining the specific broadcast data stream and wherein the mobilestation can then use the frame sequence that was broadcast to determinewhen next the specific broadcast data stream will be served.
 6. Themethod of claim 4, further comprising sensing a reduction in rate for aparticular broadcast data stream and transmitting a different frame in aslot allocated for the particular broadcast data stream in the framesequence.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the different framecomprises a unicast frame.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein causing theframes to be broadcast comprises transmitting the frames over a wirelessnetwork.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the wireless networkcomprises an OFDMA network.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein at leasttwo of the broadcast data streams comprise video data.
 11. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising deterministically computing a sequence offrame allocations for the broadcast data streams.
 12. The method ofclaim 11, further comprising including sequence information related tothe deterministically computed sequence of frame allocations in eachframe.
 13. The method of claim 11, wherein the sequence is determined ata base station of a wireless communication system.
 14. The method ofclaim 11, wherein the sequence is determined at a centralized controllerremote from but communicatively coupled to a base station of a wirelesscommunication system.
 15. The method of claim 14, wherein causing theframes to be broadcast comprises transmitting the frames wirelessly fromthe base station.
 16. The method of claim 11, wherein the sequence isused to determine the index information for the next frame.
 17. Themethod of claim 1, wherein one of the broadcast data streams includesfirst and second substreams of a stream of data, each substream carryinga different layer of information related to the data.
 18. The method ofclaim 17, wherein the first substream includes standard definition dataand wherein the second substream includes high definition data.
 19. Amethod of communicating wirelessly, the method comprising: receiving afirst frame of data having first broadcast data and other-frame indexinformation, the other-frame index information being limited, for thefirst broadcast data, to a sole instance of index information of only asingle next frame of data carrying next broadcast data related to thefirst broadcast data, from a wireless communication link, and the indexinformation varying from frame-to-frame; retrieving the first broadcastdata from the first frame; retrieving the other-frame index informationfrom the first frame; receiving an additional frame of data afterreceiving the first frame of data; receiving the next frame of dataafter receiving the additional frame of data; and retrieving the nextbroadcast data from the next frame, each frame being assigned to onlyone broadcast data stream, each frame carrying data from only itsassigned broadcast data stream, a first broadcast data stream carried inthe first and next frames of data including data processed with a firstmodulation and coding scheme, and a second broadcast data stream carriedin the additional frame of data including the same data processed with asecond modulation and coding scheme.
 20. The method of claim 19, furthercomprising: ignoring the additional frame of data.
 21. The method ofclaim 20, wherein ignoring the additional frame of data comprisesentering a low power mode.
 22. The method of claim 19, wherein themethod of communicating wirelessly comprises using OFDMA communication.23. The method of claim 19, wherein the broadcast data comprises videodata.
 24. The method of claim 19, wherein a location of the broadcastdata within each frame is pre-specified.
 25. A method of communicatingwirelessly, the method comprising: receiving a frame sequence from awireless communication link; receiving a plurality of frames from thewireless communication link, each frame being assigned to only onebroadcast data stream, each frame carrying data from only its assignedbroadcast data stream; successively decoding each frame until a firstframe that contains a stream of interest is found, index informationcarried by the each frame of other frames assigned to broadcast streamsbeing limited, for the stream of interest, to a sole instance of indexinformation of only a single next frame of data that contains the streamof interest, and the index information varying from frame-to-frame;using the index information to determine when the next frame thatcontains the stream of interest will be served; and decoding the nextframe that contains the stream of interest, the stream of interestcarried in the first and next frames including data processed with afirst modulation and coding scheme, and a second broadcast data streamcarried in other frames including the same data processed with a secondmodulation and coding scheme.
 26. The method of claim 25, wherein framesreceived between the first frame that contains the stream of interestand the next frame that contains the stream of interest are not decoded.27. The method of claim 25, wherein the method of communicatingwirelessly is performed in a mobile handset, receiving circuitry of themobile handset being placed in a low power mode during a time betweenwhen the first frame that contains the stream of interest is receivedand when the next frame that contains the stream of interest isreceived.
 28. The method of claim 25, wherein the index information isreceived from a base station, the index information for each streambeing computed by the base station.
 29. The method of claim 25, whereinthe wireless communications link is an OFDMA communications link. 30.The method of claim 25, wherein the stream of interest comprises videodata.
 31. The method of claim 25, wherein a location of the stream ofinterest within each frame is pre-specified.